This Freaks Me Out! [Pictures Newly Uploaded - Hope It Works This Time!]

For years I have noticed that members of the Bush administration are prone to flashing this particular hand sign when giving speeches or public statements. Now, I am no babe-in-the-woods, and I have been a keen observer of human behavior all my life. I never saw this gesture used so often by a specific group of people until I began noticing its frequent use by the Bush cabal.

It's not a new or complicated hand sign. It is a simple hand gesture, often used to indicate measurement, as in, "I need six #10 bolts about this long," or something like that (I know all the implied penis-size jokes are there too, so we don't have to bore each other with those). I have a theory, though. It will sound like typical "conspiracy theory" stuff, but here it is.

I think the gesture is a hand-sign/secret code used by the neocon "Bushies" to indicate something to specific listeners when they are speaking in a public forum. I believe that when they are speaking, they are not addressing the general public or an interviewer, they are secretly speaking to a target-audience of socioeconomic & political elite, their "base" as Bush called them. The hand-sign is flashed to indicate to those listeners who are "in the know" that the phrase connected with the sign is to be interpreted a particular way, rather than literally. It might mean to use a predetermined code, or to simply use the opposite meaning, or whatever; I do not know the code. But I suspect it exists and that is what they are doing.

Remember, these are a bunch of secret-society frat-boy types, Skull-and-Bones members, etc. They are long accustomed to communicating through elitist signals; it only makes sense that they would employ that tried-and-true method throughout their lives' endeavors. And remember what I said about the gesture being used ordinarily to indicate measurement? At the risk of ridicule, I offer the notion that the use of such a gesture as a secret message could have masonic roots.

In any event, here are a few examples:







I am dead serious. Can anyone tell me what is really going on with this?

A Good Little "Why They Hate Us" Video

I used to have a link to a site that had a totally great little article called "Why They Hate Us," describing why so many people from other countries (say, Iran or Iraq) hate us (hint: they don't "hate us for our freedom").

Alas, that link is no more. I miss it so, but luckily other similar sites exist to fill the void. Here is one such link:



Infuriating and enlightening at the same time. Consider, for example, the part about 32 seconds into the piece, where it says that since 1991 were had been bombing Iraq on a weekly basis. The Bush administration has such a low opinion of you and me that they think we'll believe their lie that the Iraqis "hate is for our freedom," not for conducting bomb runs against them every week for years.

Whoever believes the right-wing position on world affairs is either an ignorant dupe or an evil bastard.

Probably More Likely to be My Last Rove Post

One more thing, damnit: I am sick to death of hearing about what a brilliant strategist and a genius Karl Rove was. Can someone please, please, tell me something he did to warrant such a description?

Frequently mentioned is his success in getting George W Bush into political office (I won't say "elected" because that's not how it went down). What is the brilliant strategy in lying and cheating and stealing? Maybe the result is the proof: One might have to be brilliant to get an asshole like Bush into office.

I am anxiously awaiting proof that the morally bankrupt failure Karl Rove is as smart as they all say he is. Personally, I think they are simply repeating that lie because they were ordered to... probably by him.

Maybe My Last Rove Post

Of course I can’t let the resignation of Carl Rove go by without comment. I have referred to him a lot since I began blogging. So, rather than re-hash old material, I’ll just hit a few highlights.

1. Rove is not the genius he is credited to be. His ideas and methods were not new or innovative. His tools (secrecy, lies, cheating) are as old as the hills. He is simply a cunning backroom schemer whose plans were/are so unethical that they caught his opponents by surprise (that in itself is surprising given the nature of American politics). Even his big claim to fame – perverting the American system of electing our political leaders into a sleazy façade of pandering, corruption, election-rigging and vote-theft – has been done before, by both parties, more often than most of us would care to know. Of course, Rove had the audacity to take it to treasonous levels without remorse, but the important thing here is that his vaunted “genius” did not win the day. Not forever, anyway. Bottom line: not a genius, just so rotten that his peers thought only a genius could get away with that.

2. Rove’s grand vision of a permanent Republican majority fell down around him like a house on fire. I suppose he thought he could fool the public, for whom he and the Bush administration have demonstrated the utmost contempt throughout their reign, into thinking Republicans were morally above reproach, fiscally prudent, adherents of traditional Christian values and proponents of smaller, less intrusive government (I’ll continue as soon as you stop laughing). Now, certainly he (as a “genius”) must have been fully aware that Republicans were the exact opposite of all those things, morally, ethically, economically, & politically. So he must have thought he could build that permanent Republican majority either in spite of, or, even worse, because of, the despicable nature of Republican politicians. The “in spite of” option = stupidity, the “because of” option = evil. And that is the consistent hallmark of Republican politicians: you get to choose between stupid or evil (with the Texacutioner we got both). Either way, the “genius” failed miserably, for himself, his party, and his dark neocon masters.

3. Maybe being known as the “brain” of a “shit-for-brains” president is not such a good thing after all.

Selling Us Up the River, or, How Long Has it Been Since I Wrote a Post Where I Had to Include the Word "AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

Okay, I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but:

Recently I received a call from a telemarketer who I believe was calling from outside the US, possibly India. Now, usually when this happens, I don’t give it much thought. We all know outsourced phone bank workers have become a normal part of the global economy. Customer service calls of all kinds are routed overseas to workers who earn a small fraction of what similar workers in America would earn.

But this time, it occurred to me that an international call from a telemarketer to my residence is now considered justification for me to be investigated by homeland security domestic surveillance operatives. After all, we now live in a country that believes any call in or out of the country is suspicious.

This whole situation pisses me off in all kinds of ways (surprise).

Besides the fact that domestic spying is an insult to our constitutional rights, and besides the fact that telemarketing is an insidious annoyance despised by all but it’s purveyors, and besides the fact that outsourcing cheats the working men and women of this country out of needed jobs, I am pissed off because corporations (who really run this country anyway) can not only take away your customer service or marketing job and then call you every evening to rub your nose in it, they can now turn you into a criminal just for having a working telephone in your home. They can turn you into a criminal and they can make money off it in the process!

Talk about another sick example of twisted repuke perversion of justice! I don't want to receive unsolicited calls from overseas, but I can't prevent it, and it is being fueled by the corporations who contribute to the politicians who insist that those calls make me criminally suspect, and yet they receive their campaign contributions and lobbyist money from the revenue based on those very calls!

AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!